Let’s
say the New York Times hired a charismatic black man in his late 40s
to run the newspaper and this popular man promised change. And let’s
say I wrote an article that talked about what this man should do,
what I hoped he’d do. For example: reduce the business section
to a page, add a labor section, start covering people’s movements
and protests, refuse advertising dollars from corporations that pollute,
and hire me to run the op-ed page. Justifiably, I’d be called
delusional and I’d be ridiculed for even suggesting such insane
expectations.

Let’s
say Perdue hired a charismatic black man in his late 40s to run the
company and this popular man promised change. And let’s say
I wrote an article that talked about what this man should do, what
I hoped he’d do. For example: renounce the chicken slaughter
business, shift operations to selling organic, locally-grown vegan
food, and donate vast amounts of money to farm sanctuaries. Justifiably,
I’d be called delusional and I’d be ridiculed for even
suggesting such insane expectations.

Let’s
say America elected a charismatic black man in his late 40s to run
the country and this popular man promised change. And let’s
say Howard Zinn wrote an article that talked about what this man should
do, what he hoped he’d do. For example: “announce the
withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan” and “renounce
the Bush doctrine of preventive war as well as the Carter doctrine
of military action to control Mideast oil.” Also: “radically
change the direction of U.S. foreign policy, declare that the U.S.
is a peace loving country which will not intervene militarily in other
parts of the world, and start dismantling the military bases we have
in over a hundred countries. Also he must begin meeting with Medvedev,
the Russian leader, to reach agreement on the dismantling of the nuclear
arsenals, in keeping with the Nuclear Anti-Proliferation Treaty.”
Then raise taxes on the rich and combine that windfall with the hundreds
of billions of dollars freed from the military budget to “give
free health care to everyone (and) put millions of people to work”
and thus “transform” the United States and “make
it a good neighbor to the world.”

Well, Howard
Zinn has written such an article (“Obama’s
Historic Victory,” Nov. 12, 2008) but is anyone
calling him delusional and ridiculing him for even suggesting such
insane expectations? The tens of thousands of readers who look to
Zinn as a trusted voice of wisdom and reason are being dangerously
misled by an article that omits the reality that every indication
points to Barack Obama doing the exact opposite of what Zinn writes.
Zinn knows as well as anyone that not an iota of evidence exists that
Obama would do anything approaching what is described above. For a
man of Zinn’s stature on the Left to even hint of such a possibility
is a shockingly irresponsible act and one that only contributes to
the misguided perception that Obama’s election is somehow a
victory for the progressive Left.